“All I can tell ya is what I witnessed with my own two eyes.”

Based on the anime which is based on the manga, the video game version of Afro Samurai is a hack and slash platformer with fairly simple gameplay. It’s got a lot of “cool” factors—smooth combat, cel-shaded graphics, great character animations, a sweet soundtrack from de facto Wu-Tang Clan leader RZA, and the voice of Samuel L. Jackson as Afro. Most of those elements are present in the anime, but you don’t get to control the Afro Samurai in the anime, so the game at least has something of its own to offer. Unfortunately, the game veers quite far into “style over substance” territory. Its fun combat and gorgeous visuals put enough meat on its bones to justify its existence apart from its source material, but it doesn’t re-tell the story nearly as well as the anime and it suffers from several annoying issues with the camera and game physics.

The premise is simple and fun, if not exactly deeply compelling. As a child, Afro witnesses the death of his father—the wearer of the Number One Headband—at the hands of a gunslinger named Justice, wearer of the Number Two Headband. Your goal, then, as the now-adult Afro, is to enact vengeance upon Justice and claim the No. 1 Headband for yourself. Some fuzzy plot logic sets Afro up to fight the current No. 2 Headband owner because only No. 2 can challenge No. 1. And so once Afro is No. 2 everyone wants to kill him so they can challenge No. 1. Everyone wants to be No. 1 because wearing the Number One Headband grants the wearer godlike powers, or something.

Much of the story is lost in the attempt to port it to the interactive medium. You encounter a slew of visually memorable characters, from a mysterious female assassin to Afro’s alter-ego (who bears the super creative name Ninja Ninja) to a ghost warrior wearing an oversized bear mask, but there’s not enough backstory to make fighting them mean anything. This is a shame because the cinematic direction of this game is very good. The boss fights are set up brilliantly, the visuals and soundtrack are superb, and the way the characters trade dialogue during the fight is excellent, but the drama holds no weight for the player unless they already know the story from its source material. I’m not expecting Shakespeare, but I mean, come on, you gotta give me some more hints as to why I’m fighting the dude in the bear mask. On second thought, maybe it’s better that I don’t know.

There’s nothing here for fans of the anime who are looking for a continuation of the story, so all that’s left is the gameplay itself. As far as that goes, Afro Samurai works best when it keeps it simple—stylish, relaxed combat involving light, heavy, or kick attacks. The game’s stellar animations, excessive blood splatter, and graphical style make it look like an R-rated anime. There’s fun to be had with this limited formula, although the smooth visuals can only prop up the basic gameplay for so long. To give the illusion of some depth, the developers added a parry move but you’ll probably never use it. The crowning achievement of the game’s combat system is “focus mode,” which shifts the game into slow motion black and white and allows you to lop off your enemies’ limbs and heads if you time your attacks correctly.

To mix up the repetitious combat, some elementary platforming sections are thrown into the game. However, they appear to be an afterthought as their design is very rudimentary and the game’s physics do not lend themselves to that kind of gameplay. The player’s abilities to jump and run on walls are very hit-or-miss. That is to say, the game provides no indication which walls can be traversed or which ledges will provide a solid edge to jump from. Many of the platforming sections involve “life-or-death” acrobatics; combine that with the spotty physics and you’ve got a recipe for lots of restarts. Thankfully, checkpoints are mercifully close together.

Although the game doesn’t have much staying power, it doesn’t get old over the course of the handful of hours it takes to play through it. It has its warts, some of them nearly debilitating, but it’s super stylish and provides immediate fun, which are the two things a game like this needs to bring to the table. Although it won’t make much sense if you’ve never seen the anime or read the manga, it will provide some lightweight entertainment that won’t tax the brain too much.